Highly pathogenic avian flu detected on chicken farm: what you need to know

Where and when was bird flu discovered in New Zealand?

Speaking to the media on Monday, Biosecurity and Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard gave a timeline of the emergence of the virus in this country.

A chicken farmer at Hillgrove Egg Farm, owned by Mainland Poultry, near Moeraki – halfway between Dunedin and Oamaru – noticed birds were falling ill on Monday last week.

He called a local veterinarian, who treated the birds with antibiotics. But as more people began to die, the farmer informed the Ministry of Primary Industries on Friday. Testing teams arrived at the farm on Saturday and results came back positive later that day and confirmed it was the H7N6 strain. The farm was locked down on Sunday and testing and movement tracing continues.

Additionally, all poultry exports are suspended until the country is rid of highly pathogenic bird flu.

We have heard a lot about H1N1. Should we be worried about this other strain?

The H7N6 strain is “low pathogenic” for many wildlife, meaning it is present all the time, without causing problems.

In contrast, the “highly pathogenic” strain discovered last week causes disease, spreads rapidly and kills many birds, very suddenly.

How is bird flu spread?

Chickens – especially in free-range flocks – often come into contact with wild birds and the disease is spread among them and then to other chickens in the coop through sharing food and water.

It can also be spread through people and equipment, so MPI locked down the single shed and immediately began contact tracing and testing at the farm.

“These viruses can spread and spread between animals very quickly,” virologist Professor Jemma Geoghegan told RNZ. Checkpoint.

Could bird flu spread to other farms?

The main risk from this discovery is that it will affect New Zealand’s poultry industry. That’s why MPI acted quickly to “depopulate” the chickens in the affected shed, says general manager Ray Smith, and trace any movement from that farm over the past two weeks.

MPI is investigating six other farms in total, which had ties to the infected farm. There are potential risks at two specific farms, and four others have a low to medium risk of infection. MPI runs tests there and tries to determine who and what moved from one farm to another. However, at this time there are no signs of illness or reduced production in the other poultry farms, nor in the other sheds on the affected property.

MPI is “very confident” the virus will not spread, Smith says. Over the past four years, two other common poultry diseases – IBDV (infectious bursitis virus) and salmonella enteritis – have emerged, but they were quickly eradicated by tracing the disease, locking down flocks and killing affected poultry.

Hoggard says when the H1N1 virus was discovered in Australia, the government acted quickly and was able to eradicate it. Most recently, MPI experts and industry players visited to learn from their experience.

It helps if the affected farm is “very isolated” from neighboring properties. “We are in a much better position than Australia to stop it and eradicate it.”

Are our native birds safe?

Although the mild version of the virus is present everywhere in nature, there is no evidence abroad of transmission of the severe form of the virus from poultry to wildlife.

Department of Conservation director general Nicole Toki said the DoC was already working with MPI to prepare for H1N1. Trials of vaccinating wild birds also took place, but this proved tricky because they had to be easy to capture and control, she says. It’s a challenge “because there’s only so much you can do.”

Should I continue to eat New Zealand raised eggs and chicken?

Yes, our poultry and eggs are safe. Just be sure to follow the usual rules about cooking and eating eggs and chicken.

“Bird flu is very sensitive to heat, so cook it normally,” says Hoggard. “We constantly tell people not to eat raw chicken, and this reinforces that message.”

People overseas are known to have H7N6, Geoghegan says, but the virus is designed to spread between birds, so it is difficult to transmit to humans.

Hoggard went further during Monday’s press conference, saying there was no evidence of cases of people having contracted the disease and that MPI was “fairly confident” that there was a risk minimal for Kiwis.

Will there be an egg shortage?

Because the virus only appeared in one shed, on a North Otago farm, there will be no impact on the egg supply, Hoggard says.

“I would just point out to people that we don’t need to go out and store eggs.”

What happens to infected chickens?

There are 40,000 chickens in the shed where the virus was detected, and crews will begin exterminating them on Tuesday.

Poultry farmers are accustomed to depopulating and repopulating their birds, Smith says.

The birds will be collected in closed containers and gassed with carbon dioxide.

The farmer was “a little beat up,” Hoggard says, but the industry is well prepared for an outbreak, and the entire process of culling birds, cleaning sheds, further testing and restocking will take about four to six weeks.

The virus has an incubation period of 14 to 21 days and testing will continue until the farm gets the all-clear.

As the ministry closed the farm using its powers under the Biosecurity Act, the farmer will be compensated for all costs incurred.

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